Eastern Ghouta with no public services, electricity: residents

(Zaman Al Wasl)- It has been seven months since the Eastern Ghouta suburbs fell to regime control but living conditions and public services have not been improved, residents say.

The eastern enclave of Damascus is largely neglected by the government what has negatively affected the public life of the people and opportunities for their resettlement in the area.

Naim al-Taweel, pseudonym, an activist live in the Marj district says most of the health centers suffer from lack of equipment and medical staff.

No electricity, no water.

Most families depend on car batteries and small chargers to light their homes at night in Marj. People have to get water from the wells they have already dug, he added.

People find it very difficult to secure their supplies of water, electricity and bread.

The fall of Eastern Ghouta last April was achieved in a brutal fashion and had changed the course of the war.

More than 1,700 civilians were reportedly killed in the eight-week offensive.

The Eastern Ghouta was the scene of the first major protests in the capital against the rule of Bashar al-Assad.

Diab Hamo, resident in Bala suburb, said most of the people feel that they are still living in the siege which was imposed by the regime on Ghouta for 6 years.

On November, the regime intelligence launched a wide-scale arrest campaign in the eastern suburbs, trucking former rebel fighters.

The notorious Air Force Intelligence has arrested former fighters in Jaish al-Islam and Faylaq al-Rahman rebel groups.

Also, the General Conscription Department has sent 3000 calls for young men to perform the military service.

Most of the Syrian young men in the capital's eastern suburbs have rejected the regime’s conscription call but the reconciliation deals have imposed a new de-facto. They should join the army or they might face the military intelligence arrest.

Bashar al-Assad urged all Syrians, including the Druze minority, to send its young men to the army.

The regime is trying to attract more young men who are outside Syria by enacting laws and regulations that encourage them to return back home, and then enroll them in mandatory and reserve services.

More than 125,000 pro-regime forces have been killed in seven years of brutal war, according to local monitoring groups.

Since the Syrian revolution erupted in 2011, more than 470,000 people have been killed, and more than 6 million people have been displaced.